Texas Women Eschew Nasty Politics

The women at Sissy Farenthold's tea party are sick and tired of the hate

In Houston, Texas, a select group of women, most over the age of 65, gathered at Sissy Farenthold’s “to drink tea and talk politics,” reports Megan Carpentier, and they’re not at all happy with “the lack of standards or decency in modern politics.”

At 89, Farenthold is still active, working with the local League of Women Voters. Here at her home, says Carpentier, she is surrounded by friends and colleagues, other equally vocal, politically active and accomplished women, including Suzanne Brinsmade, 81, one of the original editors of Seventeen and Phyllis Frye, 68, the first transgender judge in the U.S.

While they all had their particular bones to pick, they all seemed to see the media as a (sometimes unwitting) accomplice.